Too Little Too Late
by SpunksBecky
Summary: Bella Swan has a long history with Edward Cullen, but it isn't until it's almost too late that she realizes what everyone else has already known: She's madly in love with him. This is the journey from teammates to friends to wherever else life takes Bella on her journey to Edward.
1. Chapter 1

Forks High School, Freshman Year

I barely remember my first day of high school, even though I had just moved from Phoenix, Arizona to live with my dad, Charlie Swan aka Chief of Police in Forks, Washington. I had been nervous for weeks leading up to it, and woke up with a butterflies in my stomach for the first two months of high school. I was shy, new, and knew absolutely no one. But there is one thing that I can recall very clearly about my first day of high school.

It was the fourth period of the day, in French class, when I first saw him. My dad had tried to talk me out of taking French. He had told me how much more useful Spanish would be, but I didn't listen to him. Our French teacher was outrageous; he had quite the personality. The first day of class was spent telling these lavish stories of his youth. I've always said he could've been a renowned writer with the daring and daunting tales he told. Before Monsieur told his stories on the first day of class, he took roll. He wasn't like the other teachers who mispronounced our names and then threw the syllabus at us. Monsieur took his time to speak to each of us individually when he took role. That was the first time I knew of Edward Cullen, when Monsieur was taking roll. In fact, I sat right next to him on his left. I hadn't noticed him before Monsieur took roll, and never took notice of him for the rest of the semester before he dropped French. Edward Cullen was quieter than I was.

"Anthony Cullen." Monsieur called out his name and searched the room for the face to match it. A quiet but confident voice spoke up next to me with a slightly raised hand.

"Here," was his reply. I looked over at the guy who spoke, sitting next to me. We didn't make eye contact, and I don't think I thought anything of him other than his hair was a little long for my liking. But I was quiet and shy and I was afraid that the turned heads looking back to hear him speak would look at me too, so I turned my head and studied him while he spoke. He was in a pair of basketball shorts and graphic t-shirt with tennis shoes. It was the go-to outfit for all of the freshman boys. He wasn't ugly, though he wasn't down right attractive either. He was average really.

"Nice to meet you, Anthony," Monsieur added, "Or do you go by Tony?"

"Anthony's fine, but most people call me Edward." He then clarified, "It's my middle name."

Monsieur nodded and asked, "Do people call you Eddie?" to which Edward replied, "Uh, no."

Monsieur took note of his name on his roll sheet and called on the next person. All of the students turned back around in their seats. It really isn't a noteworthy first encounter with him, other than the fact that I surprised myself by even remembering it. I didn't actually remember this first encounter until years later when I was asked how I knew my good friend Angela Weber- someone who also was in my French class only for the first semester.

When Monsieur had called on Angela on that first day of class he took notice of her shirt asked her, "You actually paid money for that?!" It was a cute shirt, in her defense, though I suppose middle-aged French teachers aren't exactly experts on young female fashion. Angela and I didn't become friends over that comment, though that was the first time I took notice of her. Somehow remembering that first time I noticed her brought back the memory of when I first noticed Edward. It's a strange thing to think back on my first day of high school and recall the first time I noticed people. I had no idea how important some of them would end up being. In fact, that first day of high school in Monsieur's French Class is the only memory I have of Edward Cullen from my freshman year. My next memory of him wasn't until a year later.


	2. Chapter 2

Forks High School, Sophomore Year

It was the end of the first semester of sophomore year, right around finals week. I was sitting in Mr. Molina's classroom eating my lunch in the corner with Angela. We were the kind of quiet students who didn't attract much attention to ourselves and often ate in Mr. Molina's class, especially on rainy days, which were quite frequent. On this particular day Mr. Molina was holding a meeting for students who were interested in joining Forks High School's team for the Washington State Science Event (WSSE). It was a big annual competition that schools across the state competed in at the end of February. High schools across the state held practice competitions that mocked the WSSE every weekend for months leading up to the big event. The competition was composed of a timed test and three timed scientific experiments. Mr. Molina's team had placed fifth in the state the previous year, which was an honor for a new team to do. It was no secret that Mr. Molina was gearing up to win the gold trophy in a few years, something that could only be accomplished with the dream team, which brings us back to the meeting he was having. Mr. Molina was looking for a dream team he could build up to be champions. Angela and I listened on in uninterested silence as Mr. Molina spoke to the prospective team members about the time and commitment it took to be champions, and that he only wanted people who were serious about science and the team to join. There were 5 boys and 1 girl who were in attendance who had all seemed eager at the beginning of the meeting, though at the end of the meeting after Mr. Molina's speech about how much time would be spent preparing for this competition, only three students remained, and they were the three students who were on the previous year's team. It took four people to compete on a team.

When the final bell rang and Angela and I packed up our lunches to head to fifth period Mr. Molina stopped me.

"Bella," he started and put a hand on my shoulder, "I know you weren't in here for the meeting, but I'm sure you heard my speech. I need a strong team and right now it's looking like I only have three people who are interested. Ideally we would have alternates if needed. I know from having you in biology last year and chemistry this year that you're a phenomenal student. Would you at all be interested in joining the team? We could really use you."

I was unprepared for Mr. Molina's speech, and I hadn't even considered joining the team. Sure, I was good at science, but that's because I spent my weekends studying. I wasn't like the other students who went to parties every weekend. I was lucky if someone other than Angela talked to me during a school day.

"I haven't given it much thought if I'm being completely honest, Mr. Molina," I started.

"I know, I know," Mr. Molina nodded his head, "But just take an informational packet and a parent permission slip and give it some thought."

"Okay," I agreed and picked up some of the papers.

"We meet next Wednesday after school. I know it's finals week, but if you have any interest, please stop by."

"Okay," I agreed and again and headed out the door to my next class with Angela.

"Wow, look at you," Angela said with a smile, "you were hand-picked for the team. Do you think you're going to do it?" She asked.

I sighed with a shrug. "I dunno, I haven't really thought of it. I mean, joining the science team wouldn't exactly give me higher social status, but then again, I can't really go down from here." Angela agreed with a laugh and I stuffed the papers in the pocket of my backpack I never used without another thought.

That weekend I was studying for finals at the kitchen table while Charlie was making dinner. I was a good student, and while I didn't have perfect grades, they weren't necessarily bad, and what else was I going to do with myself?

"You know Bells," Charlie started. Ugh I hated when he called me that. "I hear that Billy's daughter Rebecca just found out she got an early acceptance to University of California, Santa Barbara with a full scholarship." He nodded at me while stirring the spaghetti. It was one of the few things he could actually cook.

"Cool," I replied without really looking up from my book. Charlie sighed and continued.

"Well, you know, she was able to accomplish that because she worked her ass off and got good grades and had an ungodly amount of extracurricular activities. You know, it wouldn't kill you to join a club or two." I made a face and shrugged.

"Now don't give me that look, it'll be good for you to make some more friends and get involved." I knew he wasn't going to give it up.

"Fine," I agreed. "Mr. Molina wants me to join the science team to compete at WSSE." I told him.

"That's great, Bells! I heard they placed well last year. You know, I was quite the science nerd in high tr

I snorted and raised an eyebrow. "You what?" I was trying to picture my dad, the gun-toting, mustache-wearing father who spent his spare time fishing as a science nerd.

"I know, it's hard to believe, but I was actually young once." He was straining the pasta and looking over his shoulder as he spoke to me. "I won the regional science fair my junior year in high school. It was a big deal back then. That's when your mom first noticed me. And as they say, the rest is history." He had a wistful look in his eye, the look that proved he was still in love with my mom, which made me all sorts of uncomfortable.

"I didn't know that's how you two met," I always thought they met through mutual friends who were dating.

"It's true," Charlie said. He placed the pot of spaghetti and the bread on the table. "Joining this team would be good for you, Bella. You'd get a lot out of it. Trust me on this. Now eat." I thought a lot about what he had said while we ate and that night while I was getting ready for bed I decided it wouldn't hurt to show up to the meeting on Wednesday.

Wednesday afternoon I found myself in Mr. Molina's classroom with a signed permission slip and three other students who were all committed to the science team.

"Well team," Mr. Molina looked around the room at us with a smile, "I think this is going to be a very promising year for Forks High's Science Team as long as you all stay committed, come to practice every day, and study whenever you have the chance." You could tell Mr. Molina was excited about this year's team. We all sat in a half circle with Mr. Molina as the center. Eric Yorkie sat on his right. He had a lot of acne and looked like he hadn't washed his hair in weeks. He was last year's team's highest scorer, and it was obvious he had deemed himself better than the rest of us for that reason alone. Next to Eric was none other than Edward Cullen. His hair was still a little long, and he was still sporting the basketball shorts and t-shirt look. In between Edward and me was Siobhan. She was a redhead with glasses who was kind of hard to understand when she spoke because of her accent and her braces, but she was a sweet girl whom I had a couple classes with, though we had never spoken before. And there was me. The team's newbie.

We spent the first practice going over what to expect and writing down our individual and team goals. At the end of the practice Mr. Molina talked about getting guest speakers to come in and talk about different aspects of science. He was looking pointedly at Edward, his father was the Chief of Staff at Forks' hospital.

"Uh, I don't know if my dad can come in," Edward told him. "He's been pretty busy lately, but I can ask…" He didn't sound hopeful.

"Ah, well, it was just an idea." Mr. Molina looked a little disappointed. I thought back to what my dad had told me about his science background.

"Mr. Molina?" I asked while raising my hand. "I could maybe ask my dad if he could come in if he has some time. He used to be really interested in science and won a few competitions back in the day."

Eric snorted and rolled his eyes.

"That would be great, Bella," Mr. Molina told me, and then dismissed us for the afternoon. "Don't forget the first real practice is Monday afternoon. Don't be late."

That night I talked to Charlie about helping with the team and he agreed excitedly. "See Bells, this is what I was talking about. You just need to apply yourself a little, put yourself out there. You're going to love it."

That next Monday I found myself in Mr. Molina's classroom going over every possible question that could be on the test portion. It was tiring, but I knew a lot of the answers and I was picking up on the answers I didn't know quickly.

"Okay, so no we're going to do just a little assessment to see where you are you are right now. I don't expect any of you to get all of the questions right, but just try your best."

Right then my dad walked into the classroom.

"Chief Swan, thank you for making it. I'm just now passing around a test for them to take, but feel free to grab a seat." Charlie sat down a couple seats down from. Mr. Molina handed me the test and I got to work. It only took a few minutes to answer all of the questions, and I was clearly the first one done and handed it in. Mr. Molina graded it on the spot and gave me a big smile. After everyone turned them in, Mr. Molina graded them.

With a smile he announced, "Well, you all did a lot better than I thought you would for the first time. One of you even managed to get a perfect score, and I can say I'm quite impressed." Eric leaned back in his chair and smirked at all of us, clearly knowing he was the one with the perfect score. "Congratulations, Bella," Mr. Molina announced and passed back our tests.

"Wait. What?" Eric grabbed back his test that had four big red slashes on the questions he missed. He turned and narrowed his eyes at me. Meanwhile I was completely surprised at how well I did. Charlie nodded at me and gave me a thumbs up.

"Good job, Bella!" Siobhan gave me a high five, while Edward sat studying the questions he missed.

On the drive home Charlie was silent, though he had a smile on his face the whole way.

The rest of winter break progressed exactly the same; every afternoon was spent in Mr. Molina's classroom going over possible test questions and different scientific procedures, with a lot of help and guidance from Charlie who showed up to every practice.

It was finally the Friday before the first weekend in January and we found ourselves packing up the school van with our overnight bags for our trip to Seattle for the first school-hosted unofficial competition. We had four before the actual competition in February.

Eric was already complaining about the four hour ride while Mr. Molina rolled his eyes. Siobhan and I sat in the back of the van taking selfies and acting ridiculous to pass time. Eric was getting annoyed.

"Mr. Molina, can you get the girls to stop laughing? It's annoying. I'm trying to focus for the competition tomorrow." Siobhan rolled her eyes at him.

"Well since Edward doesn't seem to have a problem with it, and neither do I, I think you just need to focus on something else." Eric crossed his arms and glared at us, and Edward just shook his head and continued to listen to his music on his iPod. Eric was a real piece of work.

When we arrived to Seattle we checked into our hotel and spent the evening studying for the first competition. When it was time to go to bed, Mr. Molina prepped us for the next day.

"Check-in starts at 8 tomorrow, so I want you all in the lobby and ready to go at 7:30 AM sharp. Got it?" We all nodded and headed off to bed.

The next morning Siobhan and I sat in the lobby waiting with Mr. Molina. At 7:35 the boys came walking down the hallway into the lobby.

"I thought I said 7:30," Mr. Molina looked at them.

"Well maybe if _Eddie_ didn't spend a half an hour in the bathroom blow drying his hair, we could've been on time." Eric gave Edward a pointed look.

"Dude, I asked you if you needed anything before I used the bathroom. Besides, at least my hair looks presentable." Edward shot back at Eric. His hair did look nice. It was little long, but fell perfectly straight, not a hair out of place. Unlike Eric's whose hair was in desperate need of shampoo.

"Let's goo," Mr. Molina drew out the "o" for emphasis and shoved us out the door.

The competition was long and tiring, and our team placed 15 out of 25.

Every weekend in January followed the same way, though we did progressively better in each competition. Siobhan and I bonded while Eric complained about everything, and Edward stayed quiet listening to his music.

Finally, it was the day of the actual competition. I was so nervous I thought I was going to throw up. Mr. Molina gave us a pep talk before we went in.

"You four have done exceptionally well. You placed in the top five at the last practice competition, which means we have a good chance of placing in the top five this year. But I don't want you to stress. I've seen the hard work and all of the countless hours you've put into this team; you've grown so much from this experience and at the end of the day I just want you all to have fun." We all nodded, and though he tried to sound relaxed, we knew he wanted us to win. Winning was a _big_ deal.

Like every competition we were split into different groups in order to rotate the different procedures to save time. Randomly Edward and I ended up in the same group and while we never talked to each other, it was comforting to know he was there with me. Our first rotation was the test portion and we sat a couple seats apart from each other. As they started handing out the tests Edward turned to me and whispered "good luck" with a thumbs up. I whispered, "you too" with a smile.

The test portion was easy, I knew almost all of the questions automatically, and only had to make a few educated guesses. The procedures were a little harder, though they didn't give me much trouble. When we reconvened at the end of the day to wait for the scores to be tallied up Mr. Molina met up with us.

"How do you think you did?"

"Well, the test was kind of easy, but the procedures were a little hard," I admitted.

"Yeah, the test was pretty easy," Edward agreed.

Eric scoffed at me. "Please, those procedures were so easy, there's no way I don't have a perfect score." Siobhan and I gave each other "the look", you know the one we gave one another every time Eric opened his mouth. Thank God he was a senior and we wouldn't have to deal with him being on the team next year.

We sat in bleachers in the gym where the competition was being held and waited for the results to be read. They started with the sub-categories and read out the top five individually places.

The announcer read, "In second place, with a test score of 97, Isabella Swan from Forks High School." Mr. Molina and the team looked at me and I looked back with wide eyes.

"Well go get the ribbon!" Mr. Molina yelled at me over the applause. I hopped up and retrieved my second place ribbon. It was the first one I had won.

"In second place, with a test score of 98, Edward Cullen from Forks High School." Edward jumped up and passed me on his way down while I was walking back up and high fived me with a wide grin.

Mr. Molina was standing applauding, while Eric looked on in disdain.

The awards continued in the same matter, with Edward dominating. He won first in Procedure 1 and Procedure 2, and got second in Procedure 2, which I got third in. Eric got fourth in Procedure 1, and fifth in Procedure 2. _So much for the procedures being so easy,_ I thought to myself. Unfortunately Siobhan didn't get any of the sub categories.

The announcer rattled off the top five individuals out of the whole competition.

"And in first place, from Forks High School, Edward Cullen," the announcer read. We all jumped up and cheered. Mr. Molina jumped up to go get his picture taken with Edward.

Eric, Siobhan and I waited while they read the top five schools. With as many sub-categories that we scored in, we knew we had to be in the top five.

But our name wasn't read for fifth place.

Or fourth place.

Or third place.

We held out hope for second place.

And we knew we didn't do well enough for first.

"… is Forks High School!" the announcer exclaimed.

Siobhan and I looked at each other.

"We won?" I asked.

"We won!" She shouted. "Eric we won!" Eric looked at us in disbelief and we all jumped up. Siobhan ran down the bleachers to get the trophy while Eric and I trailed her and ran over to where the photographs were being taken. Edward and Mr. Molina were just finishing taking pictures when we ran over. Edward looked on in disbelief.

"We won?" He asked with wide eyes.

"We got first! I can't believe we actually got first!" Mr. Molina gave us all one-armed hugs followed by Edward.

We took our pictures on a high, giving big cheesy smiles and continuously hugging each other.

"I knew this was a good team, but I thought we had another year or two before this team would win," he admitted, but we all nodded in agreement. We didn't think we would get first either.

The car ride home was spent going over every test question and procedure in detail, as we couldn't stop talking about it. I called Charlie and left him a message with the good news. He was a big factor in us doing so well. There may have been a few happy tears.

Siobhan, Edward and I sat at school waiting for our parents to pick us up since we were all sophomores and couldn't drive, and we sat and talked and talked about the competition. We hugged each other all goodbye when our parents finally came. I don't think we talked so much the entire two months we practiced together as we did that one day after we won.

When Charlie picked me up from school he let me know how proud he was of me and the team and took me out to dinner at The Lodge, his favorite restaurant in town.

On Monday morning at school Angela greeted me with a huge hug and a congratulations. The whole school was talking about our victory. It was a nerdy competition, but a big deal. Our picture was in newspapers across the state for winning. People I had never talked to were coming up to me to congratulate me, including Jessica Stanly, who was nice enough, but had never talked to me before.

"Bella!" She had greeted me like we were good friends. She gave me a hug. "Wow, congrats! You're like, a big deal right now. We heard you placed above Eric in the competition."

"Yeah," her friend Lauren agreed. "Congrats to you guys. I hear that competition is like a big deal."

"Oh yeah, thanks guys. It was a lot of fun." I smiled at them genuinely, though it was weird this was the first conversation I had ever had with them.

"Well see you around, Bella!" Jessica said, and Lauren waved with a smile.

After school on Monday we were meeting in Mr. Molina's classroom to celebrate with ice cream. I walked in and Edward was already in there. He looked up and gave me a smile.

"I still can't believe we won," he admitted, smiling at the ground.

"I know, it's crazy," I agreed. "And I'm surprised how excited everyone is for us."

"I know, it's weird, but really cool." We smiled at each other and sat in comfortable silence until the other three joined us.

After that day I didn't see much of any of my teammates. Eric was a senior, so I didn't have any classes with him for obvious reasons, but coincidentally I didn't have any classes with Edward or Siobhan either. I didn't see much of them until the end of the school year. It was a couple weeks before the end of the school year and just in time for the elections for Student Council and ASB. Angela and I had noticed all of the signs around school, but had agreed we weren't the type of people to run. That was until Jessica convinced me to run.

It was one day after school when I was waiting for my dad to pick me up. Jessica and Lauren walked up to me and were waiting with me when Jessica brought it up.

"So, are you gonna run for a position on the Junior Class Officer team?" Jessica I asked me.

"Uh, no. I don't think so, no." I told her.

"Why not? You'd be great for it."

"It's not like you wouldn't get the votes," Lauren added.

"Totally," Jessica agreed. "We need someone like you to run. It would spice things up a bit."

"I don't know, I don't really think it's my thing …"

"Bella, it's totally your thing. Just do it." Just then my dad pulled up and I waved them goodbye.

"Who was that you were talking to? Did you make new friends?" Charlie asked as we pulled out of the parking lot.

"Oh, that was just Jessica and Lauren. They're trying to get me to run for student council, but I don't think I'm going to do it."

"Now hold on, why wouldn't you do something like that?"

"Why would I? It's not exactly my thing."

"Well make it your thing," Charlie told me. "I think you said the same thing about the science team and look where that led you. It wouldn't hurt to step out of your comfort zone, Bella." Charlie gave me a pointed look.

And that's how the next weekend found me and Angela in my kitchen baking 200 cupcakes for me to pass out during lunch on Monday, right before everyone went into fifth period and voted. At the end of the day on Monday I would find out if I had a position on the team or not. How it worked was there was an application process and teachers ranked us on our application, then the student body voted and whoever had the most votes with the highest application score became President, and so on for the other three positions. I was so nervous I couldn't sleep on Sunday night.

On Monday Angela sat with me as I made small talk and handed out cupcakes in the cafeteria to all of the student body, reminding them to vote for Bella Swan. Jessica was also running for student council, along with Edward, Mike Newton and Tyler Crowley. Five people with only four spots to fill. And I was definitely the least popular out of the group. I went through the rest of the day so nervous I thought I was going to throw up. The last 5 minutes of seventh period was reserved for the announcement of the new positions. When it came time for the new Junior Class officers I held my breath.

"Treasurer is Edward Cullen. Secretary is Mike Newton. Vice President is Bella Swan." I let out my breath. I made it. I made it! "President is Jessica Stanly." The class clapped for me and told me congratulations. I was so surprised. On the way out of class I passed Jessica in the hallway and gave her a big hug. "Congratulations," we said at the same time and laughed. Angela came up to me with her congratulations and told me how great she knew I was going to be. Outside of school I passed Edward who smiled and gave me a congratulations which I returned. I couldn't wait to tell Charlie.

Junior year was going to be a good year.


End file.
